A Gig, and Thoughts On ICT and Education

I have a gig in July at Questnet in the Gold Coast and the subject we will be talking about is how Education can be a driver for the uptake of broadband. Now one thing is clear, while business and government and entertainment dived in to the net will mega bucks in the late 90's, education has dragged along behind in a big way. You might be dumb enough to suggest that educators are uniquely resistant to new ideas, that they are irredeemably conservative or just plain too stupid to see the glories of the technology. You might, I wouldn't. My take on this is that the technology has not yet provided anything that professionally interests educators and they see no reason to spend their scarce resources on wild goose chases. I'll defend that; I think this technology has failed the education sector more spectacularly than any other. But I think that is changing. The earlier post about the way educators are taking the lead in the application of these new ideas suggests to me that, at last, we are beginning to create the tools they need. And the heart of education is dialogue, the chewing and re chewing and worrying at information until it turns from the raw data of a sealskin into the soft, pliable, useful material that can be sewn into a boot or a glove or a kayak. What Blogs and their associated technologies are doing is creating the possibility that we will, at last, start dealing with information in useful and collaborative ways using information technology. It wont be flashy, it wont be all singing all dancing, but it will be very clever, bordering on intelligent, although that might have to wait till the next iteration. Will it drive the uptake of Broadband? Good question, see you at Questnet.